Seventeen year-old Ruby, long-pledged to the much older Stiles from the Fireseed desert cult, escapes with only a change of clothes, a pouch of Oblivion Powder and her mute little brother, Thorn. Arriving at The Greening, a boarding school for orphaned teens, she can finally stop running. Or can she? The Greening is not what it seems. Students are rampaging out of control and as she cares for the secret Fireseed crop, she experiences frightening physical changes. She’s ashamed of her attraction to burly, hard-talking Blane, the resident bodyguard, and wonders why she can’t be happy with the gentler Armonk. She’s long considered her great beauty a liability, a thing she’s misused in order to survive. And how is she to stop her dependence on Oblivion to find a real beauty within, using her talent as a maker of salves, when she has nightmares of Stiles without it?

When George Axiom, wealthy mogul of Vegas-by-the-Sea offers a huge cash prize for the winner of a student contest, Ruby is hopeful she might collect the prize to rescue her family and friends from what she now knows is a dangerous cult. But when Stiles comes to reclaim her, and Thorn sickens after creating the most astonishing contest project of all, the world Ruby knows is changed forever. This romantic fantasy set in 2099 on earth has a crafty heroine in Ruby, and a swoonworthy cast, which will surely appeal to the YA and new adult audience.

My Thoughts:

"With an astounding creativity and unique world-building, Catherine Stine created a futuristic adventure that will surely keep you turning the pages until you beg for more."

Ruby’s Fire was set ten years after what happened in Fireseed One and in this story we will meet again a few familiar faces, a new cast of characters and introduce us to an awesome new heroine. After escaping from one of the Founders of the Fireseed Cult, Ruby along with her brother, Thorn, left the Fireseed Cult with only a pouch of her Oblivion.

And in their search for shelter and possibly, food, they reached the Greening led by Nevada Pilgrim where they found a secret plantation of Fireseed, a super hybrid-plant which the Fireseed Cult worshipped. There they met a few other kids who, like them, were dreaming of having a better future. A Dominion-wide competition will be their stepping stone toward those dreams. And everyone was determined to win it, to the point of deception.

Ruby's character was already strong to begin with. She knew how take care of herself and she knew how to fight especially when she's aggravated. She loves her brother so much and she would do whatever she can to give him a better future away from the Fireseed Cult who abused them.

She, among with Thorn and Armonk, were bullied by the other students for being different. They experienced every form of bullying like calling them names and even physical bullying. But Ruby is a strong girl and she's a fighter. She wouldn't let a few insecure kids stopped her from achieving her dreams. And at the end of the day, she earned the respect that she deserved and she also learned what true friendship and love was all about.

Catherine Stine continued to amaze me with her futuristic world. She made me believe that it's all real and that hybrid-species were possible. I really enjoyed her characters especially Thorn. He's such an intelligent little kid whose heart is bigger than himself. Also, if I could have my own friendly Red, I would be the happiest person ever.

Overall, Ruby's Fire is an exciting sci-fi novel that you should definitely check out. Highly recommended to sci-fi and post-apocalyptic lovers out there.

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About Me

Erleen has been in love with books since she fell down the rabbit hole when she was six. She didn't start writing the stories in her head until she was in college when things were crazy, fun and stressful. In between writing programming codes and drawing ER diagrams, she plotted and wrote her stories in a battered notebooks.

Now that she's part of the working class, she decided to finally fulfill her lifelong dream, one word at a time.